June 25, 1995	From Prisoners to Heirs	Galatians 3:23-29

One of my first memories of Vacation Bible School was singing a variety of songs. One of them was "Jesus Loves Me." That was a great song that affirmed me and helped me to know that Jesus and God were loving persons who cared about me. And then there was the song, "The B-I-B-L-E." And, again, that was a good song, as well, because it taught me that the Bible is a good book that contains the Word of God. And then there was the song, "Be Careful Little Eyes What You Say." The words of this song were "Be careful little eyes what you see; Be careful little eyes what you see; for the Father up above is looking down in love. Be careful little eyes what you see." And then the verse changed to "Be careful little mouth what you say," and "Be careful little ears what you hear." (I can't remember if it had a verse for the nose, "Be careful little nose what you smell.") But the song taught me that God doesn't want us to do bad things. For, as the song said, "The Father up above is looking down with love." Certainly, if we're God's children, we don't want our Heavenly Father to see us do something bad.

In fact, for many persons the subject of one's behavior before God seems to be a very powerful and consuming theme. There are those who when they think about the church suddenly equate that with avoiding bad behavior and doing good. They call Christians "do-gooders" or if they know of a Christian who does something bad, they call him or her a hypocrit. Yet, while one's good and righteous behavior is important, to emphasize that as being the main identifying goal and characteristic of a Christian would be to nullify the importance of grace, especially as the Apostle Paul describes it in our lesson from the book of Acts.

For Paul one's strict adherance to a list of good things to do and evil things not to do was more a characteristic of pre- Christian behavior than it is of Christian behavior. For such an adherance to such a list solely for the sake of one's salvation ignores the importance of God's gift to us of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. "For," as Paul said, "we are saved by faith, and not by works."

In fact, as far as Paul was concerned, one's belief that one's salvation depends upon what a person does is a very limiting and confining kind of belief. In fact, Paul's very words were, "Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law."

Take this story about a little boy who was given a dog, as an example. Once upon a time a boy was hired by an elderly woman to take care of her expensive show dog for a few days. She thought he might enjoy playing with her dog. But, the boy had never had a dog, nor even played with a dog before. In fact, he really didn't understand dogs, at all. But, one thing he was told by the woman when the dog was put into the boy's care was, "Don't you let that dog get dirty! And don't you let that dog run away!"

So, for the time that the boy was with the dog that was all he thought about: keeping the dog clean and tied up. At first, the boy thought it would be fun taking care of the dog. But, after a short while he began to get bored. Just sitting there watching the dog, day after cay, keeping the dog clean and tied up was about the most boring thing he had ever done in his life!

A few days later the woman came back and asked the boy how he had liked playing with her dog. He shrugged his shoulders in surprise and said, "Play with your dog? You didn't say anything about playing with your dog. I just thought you wanted me to keep it clean and tied up."

In many ways, our religious life can be much like this story about the boy and the dog. Too many people believe that all their relationship between God and ourselves requires is keeping it clean and tied up. We don't spend enough time playing with God, exploring the relationship, digging beneath the surface, trying to find out what such a life with God can do. What we need to do in our relationship with God is much like what we might want to do with a dog: We should be willing to take it for a walk; rough around with it; teach it some tricks; learn obedience.

Our lesson from Galatians for today tells us that if we base our relationship with God on faith rather than on works the nature of the relationship changes from one where we are afraid of God to one where we feel that we are God's beloved children. Rather than seeing God only as an Almighty Monarch, we understand God as being a Loving, Caring, Parent who plays with and cares for God's children. With faith, and therefore grace, as the base of our relationship with God we begin to look at God, not from the viewpoint of prisoners or slaves, but from the perspective of willing servants of a wonderful, caring, friend who would do just about anything for us.

But there is one more thing that faith and grace does for us. If we believe in justification by works, if we believe that we must follow a strict list of good things to do and bad things not to do in order to be acceptable to God, there is the real danger of a hierarchical system being developed among believers. There will be those who think that they are more righteous than others, and therefore closer to God, higher on the spiritual ladder, better in many ways. And that's not a good thing. In fact, this is something that Jesus protested against in his own ministry, especially when he healed and ate with sinners. Jesus knew that if anything the Law had a tendency to divide God's people, rather than unite them.

But with Christ, as Paul said: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus." Because we have been clothed with Christ, there is no division among believers, no heirarchy of those who may be closer to God or farther away from God. Or, as the hymn says, "In Christ there is no east or west. . .but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth."

Sometimes, even as Christians, we forget this great truth. But, let us remember, today, and live our lives in confidence, serving God and each other in faith and joy.

Amen.